This invention relates to apparatus and a method for imaging many types of documents, such as passports, identity cards and driver""s licenses, to identify the type of document, read the document, and then to detect security information and/or materials used therewith to authenticate such documents and determine if they are valid, counterfeit or have been altered.
Illegal modification and counterfeiting of identification documents, such as passports, identity cards and driver""s licenses, and documents of value, such as bonds, certificates and negotiable instruments, has been increasing year by year to the concern of companies, governments and their agencies that issue these documents. To counter this problem new materials are being developed for the production of such identity documents and documents of value, that make it more and more difficult to alter or counterfeit the documents, and easier and faster to detect if such documents are counterfeit or have been altered.
These new materials utilize new laminating schemes and materials that use holograms, invisible inks that only appear when illuminated by certain wavelengths of visible or invisible light, retro-reflective layers inside the laminating materials, different types of inks that have one color under normal ambient light but show up as different colors when illuminated by certain wavelengths of invisible light, and many other novel arrangements. In addition, magnetic and radio frequency (RF) taggants may be added to the laminates or base material of documents during their manufacture, and such taggants may be detected while being invisible to the eye. Further, micro-miniature smart chips may be embedded in such documents, such as they are in smart cards, and used in reading and verifying documents such as, but not limited to, those document types listed above.
The increase in number of passports, documents of value, and other security and identification documents having anti-counterfeiting, anti-alteration and other verification features, including new laminating materials, some of which are briefly described above, have created a growing need for new, better document reading and authentication equipment for rapidly and accurately identifying a document type, then reading the document, and verifying if it is authentic by detecting security information about, and/or materials from which the document is made, to detect if it is counterfeit or has been altered.
Such new document reading and authentication equipment is desperately needed at high traffic locations, such as international airports around the world, where millions of travelers pass between countries each year. However, such new equipment is also needed for many other applications such as reading and checking identity badges of employees and others in high security installations where government or industrial confidential or secret information is to be protected, and/or access and movements are carefully limited, controlled and recorded. In addition, such new document reading and authentication equipment is needed to check different types of documents of value.
The above described need in the art for new, better document reading and authentication equipment is satisfied by the present invention. The new equipment rapidly and accurately identifies a document type, reads the document, and then verifies if it is authentic by detecting security information about, and or materials from which the document is made, to detect if it is counterfeit or has been altered.
The novel document reading and authentication equipment described herein performs multi-level, hierarchical testing of documents through a sequence of determining a document type, and of determining if a document is valid, altered or counterfeit. In operation the equipment first captures a single image of a document under test and determines the physical size of the document. From the document size a number of document types are identified that have the same size as the document under evaluation. A first set of characteristics for each of the identified document types is then retrieved from a memory and is individually compared to the first document image that has already been captured. From this comparison, the specific document type being evaluated is often identified. Sometimes, another level of testing is required to identify a document type.
Reference documents for all document types that can be authenticated are segmented and a correlation number is determined for each segment based on some characteristic in the segment. The first image of the document is also segmented and a correlation number is determined for the same characteristic for each segment containing static or fixed information. The correlation numbers for each document segment having static information are compared with the correlation numbers of corresponding segments of the reference documents that have the same size as the first document. The identity of the document is determined from the comparison of the correlation numbers. Using the document identity, a set of security attributes are retrieved and the identified document is tested to determine if the document is genuine, counterfeit or has been altered.
The results of reading and testing each document are presented to an operator of the document reading and authentication equipment, unless the equipment is operating autonomously. In addition, whether or not the document has not been altered and is not counterfeit, information on the document and about the document type may be used for many other purposes. For example, the information may be stored providing a history of use of the document. Further, other databases may be checked to determine if the bearer of the document is wanted for any reason, should be detained, is temporarily or permanently denied any privilege granted by the document, or for many other reasons. Also, it can be determined what type of document is most commonly used at specific document reading and authentication equipment locations.
More particularly, the new document reading and authentication equipment can cooperate with a central database to store information read off the document, or regarding the use of the document such as a passport, to store a record of the bearer of the passport or other identity document passing through an airport or other location where the passports or other documents must be presented when traveling or moving about, and whether the document bearer is on a government agency or other watch list.